Displaying Art Over Couches on Long Walls

Art can help break up a big space.

Don't let that area over your couch remain a vast architectural wasteland. If you're like most homeowners, you'll want to fill it with an arrangement of eye-catching artwork. If the sofa is along an unusually long wall, however, your decorating task becomes more challenging. Some general home decor guidelines can help you find the optimal arrangement for your artwork to bring order to the void and make your room more appealing.

Couch Placement

Before adding artwork, be sure that your couch is arranged well. Try placing other furniture or items around the couch at angles or away from walls to eliminate the "boxy" feel that results from a sofa being against the wall. Furniture placed at angles has a more friendly and casual feel as well. Cluster these items around the couch to form an area that is appealing for sitting, conversing or watching television. Keep these items within about 8 feet of one another to make a comfortable arrangement. This cluster can provide the feeling of a defined space on a long wall, thus breaking up the wall. While centering a couch on a wall is one of the easiest options, your wall may be too long for this to work well. Along with using the clustering method, you can break up a wall with large pieces of furniture, like bookcases or armoires, to make the space feel more "manageable" and to divide the room into areas.

Size

Good artwork should be an appropriate size. For a long wall, a big piece can help break up the wall a bit and draw the eye to the right place. A good rule of thumb is to use a piece of art that is about two-thirds the length of your sofa. This can be a vertical or horizontal measurement for the artwork. But you may find such large pieces of artwork too difficult to hang. If that's the case, use several small pieces grouped closely together to form this ideal size, creating the same visual effect as one larger piece. You can use several pictures that are the same size, or cluster together a variety of pieces for a more collagelike effect.

Height

Height is an important aspect of well-arranged artwork. A good rule of thumb to use is to hang the artwork so its center will be between 60 and 63 inches above the floor. This is around eye level for many people, creating optimum viewing. In general, you also want no less than 9 inches between the bottom of the art and the top of the sofa. Sometimes, though, it's better to simply hold the art on the wall and move it up and down until the height seems ideal, then mark this point and hang the art. This requires having someone available to hold the art. If you have a lot of pieces together or find that having someone hold up a piece is impractical, try cutting pieces of paper to the same size and hanging them on the wall. The plainness of the paper can even help you make a better decision, since you are looking solely at shape and size and not colors or patterns.

Long Walls

Even if you've properly arranged your couch and have art that's at the right height and is the optimal size, you may find that your wall still feels too long. Try using more art to add appeal and break up a long wall. A good technique to use is to add art to each side of the couch, over other items or furnishings. Try to use pieces of artwork that are about the same size and are about the same distance away from the central artwork. While asymmetry can be very appealing, a symmetrical arrangement is often easier to use successfully.